This invention relates to surgical apparatus and particularly to an improvement in surgical retractors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,398 discloses a surgical retractor comprising an annular frame conforming to the contour of the body portion on which surgery is to be performed and having a series of notches around the frame periphery into which are inserted elastic stay members that include lengths of elastic tubing to one end of some of which a tissue holding hook is attached. The tissue holding hooks of the stays have a looped handle which is retained within the tubing by inserting the handle into the tube while the tube is in a temporary malleable state, achievable by soaking one end of the tubing in a solvent. Installing the hook in a length of elastic tubing in the manner disclosed in the foresaid U.S. patent is tedious, time consumming and expensive and the stay configuration is limited to a single hook arrangement. At times different length stay members are needed for varying conditions encountered in the surgical operation and optimum lengths of elastic stay members and surgical tubes are not always available when needed. Although the stay members of the surgical retractor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,398 are satisfactory for many conditions, a greater versatility in the configuration of the stay tissue holding members of the retractor is needed.